Feast of Tabernacles or Festival of Booths, or Sukkot in Hebrew for “booths”
What does it mean to be “in Christ,” and what does it mean to have “Christ in you”? We go into the Creator’s presence by way of the Messiah. The Creator’s presence goes into us by way of the Messiah.
Among the biblical symbols of Sukkot (festival of Tabernacles, or Booths) is the tent, the temporary dwelling. It reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going. The sukkah is also a visual representation of how to have “Messiah in us” and to be “in Messiah” at the same time.
Temporary shelters, branches of palm, willow and myrtle, and citrus fruit — the symbols of the Sukkot, the biblical festival of Tabernacles, or Booths. Plants clean the air and subtly effect us by their fragrance. We see them as physical things that are useful to us in the physical realm, while God uses references of them in the Bible to teach spiritual lessons as symbolic representations of people.
In this study, we’ll explore what each of these symbols teach us about ourselves and how the Holy One of Israel wants to recreate us.
Shemini Atzeret (Convocation of the Eighth Day, Lev. 23:33–36, 39–43), the day following the seven days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles or Booths), and Shavuot (Pentecost) are “buddies.” The symbolism of one is mirrored in the other. What happened on Shavuot throughout the Bible is a “shadow,” a likeness, of what will happen on a Shemini Atzeret during the Day of the LORD.
Spirit beings need God’s breath, “water” from the God and the Tree of Life. We will experience seeing God face to face, and we will be able to keep His commandments without any hinderance. He will be our Father, and we will be His children in fullness. We will “look like” God, which was God’s intent all along.
There are conjunctions in Israel’s history between the days of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles or Booths) and key events, from the Flood to the time of David and Solomon to Yeshua (Jesus) mission on Earth to the coming Day of the LORD. Rather than coincidences, these intersections teach us about God and His Messiah.
God will put a trial on the nations who do not come to the Great Ingathering, i.e., the Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles). God told Israel to bring in their laborers to Sukkot — even the “stranger,” or foreigner. So this among God’s appointments with mankind is not just for the House of Yehudah (Judah) or the House of Israel. God wants to “harvest” the peoples of the world into a new reality without sin and death.
The sacrifices of the day of Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) are not about the animals but about the Messiah and the people they represent. There’s so much beauty and hope in Sukkot. All 70 nations that came into being after the Flood, represented by the 70 bulls sacrificed during the entire feast, will be brought back to God.
This is a 50,000-foot-high view of the fall “feasts to the LORD” (Lev. 23:2) — Yom Teruah (Trumpets, aka Rosh Hashanah), Yom haKippurim (Atonement) and Sukkot (Tabernacles). We’ll look at what they are and what meanings are stacked on top of each other as memorials of the actions of the Messiah past, present and future.